Killing the clones was not about greed -- it was about survival and common business sense (as well as satisfying shareholders). Apple originally hoped the clone business would complement its sales -- instead it cannabalized them.
Well, speaking for a North American family with three relatively young movie-watching kids... I can report that they think of Pixar, NOT Disney, when talking about The Incredibles, Nemo, Monsters, Inc., etc...
That 3D Lamp will get them to say Pixar anytime, and they don't care about the 3D Disney Castle when it shows up on the DVDs...
You may be able to record on a Mac or PC, but that doesn't mean you will come up with anything that sounds good. A good producer -- a local independent can be excellent -- is still required to help out. Creating original music is like writing a book -- you'd be a fool to do it in isolation without some professional guidance and help.
And BTW, playing live gigs is a serious PITA. A three hour gig requires travel time to and from, and setup time. If you care about being punctual, they end up going from 3 to 4 or 5 hours. And for anyone with a life -- say a real job to support the music habit and a family -- the gig lifestyle is not easy. All for under $200 for the 4-5 people in the band...
And as others have noted, there are just not that many venues anymore. Up North of Boston, when the drinking age was 18, there were tons of clubs supporting live music. For a variety of reasons, including a higher drinking age and insurance concerns, there aren't many places left. Most bars find it more lucrative to have karaoke or a DJ on Friday nights...
It would be interesting to see if a "new age," incrementally improved label could promote niche music effectively. For example, my wife's band is Celtic rock fiddle, so it would be cool to deal with a label that knew how to reach you and folks with similar interests. There may not be many people with similar interests in your area, but worldwide there's got to be a rather large audience that is untapped. Online distribution would seem to help as the label wouldn't have to sink costs into pressing a ton of physical CDs or doing other large-scale, inefficent marketing activities.
Perhaps Net radio is the answer. Niche audiences could be united without regard to geography, making it more reasonable to reach to that audience. But I haven't seen any clear movement in the Net radio space, from the station to consumer behavior.
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Killing the clones was not about greed -- it was about survival and common business sense (as well as satisfying shareholders). Apple originally hoped the clone business would complement its sales -- instead it cannabalized them.
Well, speaking for a North American family with three relatively young movie-watching kids... I can report that they think of Pixar, NOT Disney, when talking about The Incredibles, Nemo, Monsters, Inc., etc...
That 3D Lamp will get them to say Pixar anytime, and they don't care about the 3D Disney Castle when it shows up on the DVDs...
You may be able to record on a Mac or PC, but that doesn't mean you will come up with anything that sounds good. A good producer -- a local independent can be excellent -- is still required to help out. Creating original music is like writing a book -- you'd be a fool to do it in isolation without some professional guidance and help.
And BTW, playing live gigs is a serious PITA. A three hour gig requires travel time to and from, and setup time. If you care about being punctual, they end up going from 3 to 4 or 5 hours. And for anyone with a life -- say a real job to support the music habit and a family -- the gig lifestyle is not easy. All for under $200 for the 4-5 people in the band...
And as others have noted, there are just not that many venues anymore. Up North of Boston, when the drinking age was 18, there were tons of clubs supporting live music. For a variety of reasons, including a higher drinking age and insurance concerns, there aren't many places left. Most bars find it more lucrative to have karaoke or a DJ on Friday nights...
It would be interesting to see if a "new age," incrementally improved label could promote niche music effectively. For example, my wife's band is Celtic rock fiddle, so it would be cool to deal with a label that knew how to reach you and folks with similar interests. There may not be many people with similar interests in your area, but worldwide there's got to be a rather large audience that is untapped. Online distribution would seem to help as the label wouldn't have to sink costs into pressing a ton of physical CDs or doing other large-scale, inefficent marketing activities.
Perhaps Net radio is the answer. Niche audiences could be united without regard to geography, making it more reasonable to reach to that audience. But I haven't seen any clear movement in the Net radio space, from the station to consumer behavior.